Other stories by
Myron Ferguson

Q: A recent customer wanted to do his own painting and used an airless sprayer to apply primer to the bare drywall. He then rolled on the finish paint, but now he's complaining that the surface is rough wherever the drywall finisher sanded. He is blaming the drywall contractor, but I'm not sure...

My clients are concerned about mold, and want the walls and ceilings of their remodeled basement to be covered with paperless drywall instead of regular gypsum board. Are there any tricks to installing and finishing this material, or is it treated just like standard drywall?

Q: On a recent project, several hundred screw pops showed up on the primed walls and ceilings. About half the boards in the house had to be rescrewed and patched, and all the drywall had to be reprimed. Although it was raining when the drywall was stocked, my drywaller says he did not use any of...

Q: We've been called back to repair the ceiling of a vacation-home addition we built last year. The 5/8-inch fire-rated drywall ceiling is covered with 14 inches of blown-in insulation. All the tape joints performed well except those within a 6-foot radius above the wood stove; they've lost...

Q: When we're working with what we call "hot mud"- setting-type drywall compounds that come in powdered form - it seems almost impossible to mix the stuff up without getting lumps. Do you have any suggestions for smoothing out the consistency?

Q: My company is converting a garage with drywall on its walls and ceiling into living space.The joints have been taped with one coat of mud, but some of the tape is dry and loose, and the drywall's paper surface — which was never primed — has darkened an